Timeline
1930's ** 1930 *** Harland Sanders purchases a Shell Gas Station in North Corbin, Kentucky and creates a restaurant that sells country ham, pork steaks, and fried chicken. That last item would cause Sanders to become a local celebrity. ** 1935 *** Kentucky Governor Ruby Lafoon makes Sanders an honorary Colonel for his contributions. *1940's **1940 ***Colonel Sanders creates an original recipe for his chicken based on a mixture of 11 herbs and spices. **1945 ***American soldiers return from Italy after the Second World War and popularize pizza. **1946 ***Glen Bell, witnessing the horrors of the Second World War, opens a hot dog stand in San Bernardino to bring happiness into his life. It is built across the street from a Mexican restaurant called Mitla Cafe, where Bell would eat regularly. The owner would teach him the art of taco creation and become friends with him. *1950's **1952 ***Sanders franchises his chicken recipe to Pete Harman, owner of Harman Cafe in South Salt Lake City, Utah. Harman creates the KFC name and the slogan "It's finger lickin' good". **1955 ***Bell creates Taco Tia as his first concept for a Mexican fast food restaurant. **1956 ***Sanders got six other franchise agents but abandoned his North Corbin restaurant with Interstate 75 diverting traffic away from the city. He would then tour the U.S. and find restaurants to franchise his recipe. **1958 ***Pizza parlors are still a rare sight in communities for Italian immigrants. ***Dan and Frank Carney, inspired by this, create a pizza restaurant on the WSU campus. It is called "the Pizza Hut" as it looks like a hut. ***Bell sells his Taco Tia shares and creates El Taco. **1959 ***The two brothers get their first franchise contract in Topeka. *1960's **1960 ***KFC has an estimated 200 restaurants. **1962 ***After selling Taco Tia and El Taco, he opens the first Taco Bell in Downey, California. **1963 ***The number of KFC restaurants triples to more than 600. **1964 ***Sanders sells his restaurant to John Brown. ***Bell signs the first Taco Bell franchise contract to open a restaurant in South Bay. **1966 ***After expanding rapidly, Pizza Hut had over 145 restaurants. They open new ones in Canada, then Germany, followed by Australia, Japan, and finally, the U.K. *1970's **1970 ***Taco Bell, having 325 restaurants, goes public. **1971 ***Pizza Hut has 1,000 restaurants. ***KFC is purchased from John Brown by Heublein. **1972 ***The Carney brothers cash in on their success after Pizza Hut got public from being listed by the NYSE. **1977 ***PepsiCo buys out Pizza Hut. **1978 ***Taco Bell is purchased by PepsiCo. *1980's **1982 ***Hueblein is purchased by R.J. Reynolds. They get the KFC chain as a bonus. **1986 ***R.J. Reynolds merges with Nabisco and sells KFC to PepsiCo for $850M. **1989 ***PepsiCo(the owner of Pepsi in the case of drinks, Frito-Lay in the case of snacks, and KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell in the case of restaurants) starts donating funds to the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour. *1990's **1993 ***PepsiCo stops the fundings to the Newshour. **1997 ***The three restaurants are spun off by PepsiCo to create Tricon Global Restaurants. *2000's **2002 ***Tricon changes its name to Yum! Brands while purchasing A&W and Long John Silver's. ***Co-branding is created, resulting in KFC-Taco Bell restaurants in San Francisco, and vice versa. *2010's **2011 ***A&W and Long John Silver's are spun off into separate companies. **2016 ***Yum! Brands CEO Greg Creed creates Yum China by spinning off the Chinese restaurants into their own separate company.